Family Members’ Perspective Regarding Safety Behaviors and Responsibility of Latino Construction Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Grzywacz J ; Marin A ; Merten M ; Mills T ; Montgomery S ; Nolasco H ; Nunez Reyes E
• Description:
  Family is a major agent for change, regardless of whether the focus is on disease management, educational success, or safety in the workplace. The current study aims to examine beliefs about worker safety from the perspective of family members of small-scale Latino construction workers and provide insight into issues of promoting safety in the workplace and beliefs about responsibility as it relates to accidents and injuries that occur on the job. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 family members of small-scale Latino construction workers in the framing and roofing trades. The 60-90 minute interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for dominant themes. Preliminary data finds that family members are aware of the dangers that the Latino construction workers face. Interviews suggest that family members (largely spouses) acknowledge that family members are to varying degrees familiar with unsafe behaviors exhibited on the worksite. In regards to family members' involvement in encouraging worker safety, family members communicate messaging about safety to workers in both passive ways and methods that involve "thinking about family." The generalizability of study findings is unknown because the data are from a small, regional sample of contractors and workers in two trades of small-residential construction. Understanding the perspectives of family members of small-scale Latino construction workers regarding safety behavior and responsibility is a novel approach to creating worker education programs that have the potential to be more effective than traditional worker/contractor only programs. An opportunity exists for family members to become more actively involved in promoting safety practices of the worker. The inclusion of family members in small-scale residential construction safety programming may significantly reduce serious injury in the workplace. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Behavior Construction Industry Emigration And Immigration Family Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Accident Construction Workers Families Family Members Immigrant Latino Workers Immigrant Workers Qualitative Methods Qualitative Research Safety Safety Practices Small-scale Residential Construction Worker Safety

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• Publisher:
  Glasgow Caledonian University
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Florida ; Nebraska ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 7 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  265-273
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070872
• Citation:
  Proceedings of the Joint CIB W099 & W123 International Conference 2021: Changes and innovations for improved wellbeing in construction, September 9-10, 2021, Glasgow, Scotland. Glasgow, Scotland: Glasgow Caledonian University, 2021 Sep; :265-273
• Email:
  michael.merten@unl.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  Florida State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20200803
• Source Full Name:
  Proceedings of the Joint CIB W099 & W123 International Conference 2021: Changes and innovations for improved wellbeing in construction, September 9-10, 2021, Glasgow, Scotland
• End Date:
  20230731
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b8133473bea7fe1983694f02190531bcaf78dc74ff4002866eda8681686354e4674f588fb7685f7e9b03aaa85a6555034dd99452a5a9eba57631327bdd873977
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/209000/cdc_209000_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.04 MB ]